Urban farms, electric cars and wild swimming – a weekend in Europe's most eco-friendly city

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I’m standing on the summit of a giant iceberg gazing out over a Norwegian fjord. My mouth is wide open, and my eyes are staring wildly as I clutch the sides of my face with my cupped hands. For a mad moment I wonder whether to let rip with a piercing scream. But then good sense prevails, and I decide against it. Perhaps my pantomime mimicry of The Scream, Edvard’s Munch’s masterpiece with this same fjord in the background, is not in the best taste.

I return from my reverie to find myself in an altogether more reassuring world. It’s early spring and this is my first visit to Norway’s capital. The “iceberg” under my feet is in fact the Italian marble of Oslo’s spectacular opera house, opened in 2008. It’s cubist geometrical exterior and roof have added a massive public space to the newly redeveloped waterfront looking out over the fjord itself and the sparkling glass and aluminium of the adjacent Munch museum which opens next year.